Violence in the Russian Military: MOSCOW -- Sgt. Sergei Ivanov is in the hospital. He can answer simple questions now with a yes or no. He can tell his mother when he is tired and when he wants to walk the hospital corridor. He will not, however, tell what happened to him. As his fellow soldiers explained it, however, Sgt. Ivanov, of military unit 25654 stationed in the southern Russian city of Georgievsk, was sick that day. He was lying on his cot in the barracks, nursing a fever, when the commanding officer, a major, walked in. Music was playing on a cassette player near the bed. The major ordered it turned off, but Sergei did not hear him. The major beat him so badly he was in a coma for three days. The doctor warned his mother he might not survive. It was Oct. 21, two weeks before he was to complete his two years of army service and be discharged.